1. ROMAN REPUBLIC TO EMPIRE
60 BCE to 180 BCE

2. Republic to Empire
 Small minority of Roman citizens are running the
government
 Senate is made up of wealthy landowners who serve
for life
 Senators and the wealthy bought large tracts of land
for large-scale and highly profitable agriculture
 Small farmers could not compete with large-scale
agriculture
 Created economic and social crisis in Rome as small
farmers moved to Rome seeking economic
opportunity

3. Reform: Gracchus Brothers
 Rome had large population of poor
 Made up of small farmers who gave up their land
because they couldn’t compete with wealthy
landowners
 Gracchus brothers proposed reforms to help
poor
 Land-reform bills to prevent large scale agriculture
 Return public lands to small farmers
 Gracchus brothers were assassinated by the
wealthy class for their reform ideas

4. Roman Army
Traditionally, the Roman Army recruited from the landowner class, who could
afford armor and weapons.
By first century BCE, the Army was stretched too thin and needed more
soldiers. Gaius Marius, a famous general, recruited his soldiers from among
the poor. He promised land in exchange for their service.
•This gave soldiers the opportunity to become landowners and possibly
rise through the social classes
•It made the soldiers give their allegiance to their general, not Rome
Once an army became loyal to their
general instead of Rome, generals
found themselves with more power –
the power of force.
Roman generals started to use their
armies to gain political power by
threatening or actually invading
Rome.

5. Roman Generals
Gaius Marius Lucius Cornelius Sulla
 Changed way armies were  Civil war broke out when
recruited Sulla had command of
 Gave generals more power army in Asia
 Plebs tried to give command
 Forced generals to enter to Marius
politics to get land for their
 Sulla brought his army
troops
back to Rome and fought
Marius
 Sulla defeated Marius and
became dictator

6. Sulla
 Used dictatorship to try to restore power to
the Senate instead of generals
 Instead showed future leaders how they
could control Rome
 Army loyalty
 Bribed Tribunes of the Pleb into making laws
 Left behind legacy of generals seizing power by
force and having Senate appoint them dictators

7. First Triumvirate
 From 82 to 31 BCE, Rome was involved in
several civil wars as generals tried to gain
power.
 In 60 BCE, three men emerged as victors and
were able to dominate the political scene in
Rome:
 Crassus, the richest man in Rome
 Pompey, a military hero
 Julius Caesar, a military commander from one of
the oldest families in Rome

8. First Triumvirate

9. First Triumvirate
 Joined together in 60 BCE
 Pompey received command of Spain
 Crassus received command in Syria
 Caesar received command of Gaul (France)
 All three used their commands to enrich
themselves and gain the loyalty of their
armies
 Crassus was killed in 53 BCE, ending the
triumvirate

10. First Triumvirate: Aftermath
 Pompey, heavily influenced by a Senate allied against
Caesar, was convinced to take command of Rome
 Caesar was ordered to disband his army and return to
Rome
 Caesar would face charges of treason, bribery, and
illegally fighting a war in Gaul, so he refused to step
down
 Caesar kept his army and crossed into Rome at the
Rubicon (as a result, “Crossing the Rubicon” has come to
mean unable to turn)
 Caesar marched on Rome, starting a civil war against
Pompey’s forces
 Caesar defeated Pompey, who fled Rome with most of
the Senate

11. Julius Caesar
•Used military to seize power
•Became dictator in 47 BC
•Gave land to poor
•Gave political offices to
friends
•Weakened Senate by
enlarging it
•Changed to 365 day calendar
(was Egyptian)

12. Second Triumvirate
 Caesar’s heir: Octavian
 Caesar’s nephew: Marcus Antonius
 Caesar’s cavalry commander: Lepidus
 Three men took control of Rome
 Lepidus went to Africa
 Ocatvian and Marcus Antonius split the rest of the
Roman territory by East/West,
 Antonius took the East, went to Egypt
 Octavian stayed in Rome and gained power

13. Second Triumvirate

14. Octavian vs. Antonius
 Lepidus was soon out of power, crushed between
the two opposing forces of Octavian and
Antonius
 Antonius fled to Egypt and allied himself with
Cleopatra (his mistress – he fell in love with her)
 Octavian pursued Antony with his army, had
battle at Actium
 Antony was defeated and a year later, he and
Cleopatra committed suicide rather than
surrender to Octavian

15. Age of Augustus
 After Antony’s suicide, Octavian was supreme
ruler of Rome
 He promised to restore the Republic, but
actually became the first emperor
 In 27BCE the Senate granted Octavian the
title of “Augustus”, meaning the revered one
 He still controlled army, so Senate was not
powerful
 Was granted title of imperator, or emperor

16. Age of Augustus
 Octavian kept standing
military of around 150,000
men
 Stabilized the Roman Empire
 Expanded borders of known
Empire
 Defeated when he tried to
expand into Germany

18. Early Empire – 14 BCE – 180 CE
 Empire had a strong
military
 First four emperors after
Octavian were all from his
family
 Tiberius
 Caligula
 Claudius
 Nero

19. Early Empire
 Emperors became more powerful, took
power from the Senate
 Emperors became more corrupt the more
power they gained
 Nero killed all his opposition, including his
own mother
 Military abandoned Nero, who committed
suicide

20. Pax Romana
 Pax Romana was period of peace and
prosperity
 Five good emperors came to power during
Pax Romana: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian,
Anonius Pius, and Marcus Aurelius
 Respected ruling classes
 Ended arbitrary execution
 Maintained Peace throughout empire
 Domestic policies of building including
aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors

21. Empire Expands
Rome expands under emperor Trajan
Empire becomes too large to be easily
governed
Hadrian withdrew from Mesopotamia,
strengthened fortifications along the
Rhine and Danube Rivers
Built Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain
to keep out Picts and Scots
At its height, the empire was 3.5
million square miles and had a
population of over 50,000,000 people

22. Early Empire
 Emperors allowed conquered people to maintain
local customs
 Citizenship was granted to some conquered
people, especially the wealthy and those
accepting of Roman rule
 In AD 212, the emperor Caracalla granted
everyone Roman citizenship
 Cities are critical in spreading Roman culture,
including Latin, literature, and laws
 Culture is Greco-Roman, since Greek was used
throughout most of the Eastern part of the
Empire

23. Economic & Social Conditions
 Early empire was prosperous and peaceful
 High levels of trade throughout the Empire
 Puteoli is chief port in Italy, along with Ostia, which was at the
mouth of the Tiber River
 Luxury items came from as far east as China (along the Silk
Road)
 Farming remained the chief occupation of Roman prosperity
 Large estates called latifundia dominated farming
 Sheep and cattle were raised on a large scale, mostly using
slave labor
 Large gulf between the very wealthy and the poor
 Poor were dependent on handouts of grain from the emperor